If schools are reduced to regulatory test prep centers...can you blame parents for running away from them?

I taught myself to read at about 5 years old. Mostly with comic books, Little Golden books and a whole shelf of dinosaur books. The only regret about learning to read at that early an age (and without a teacher to discipline me) is that my spelling is abysmal. If I could have figured out a way of making a good living as an eternal student, I would have still been in college. But I purely hated K-12, the only thing the K-12 schools prepaired me for was working in a factory, which was their original function anyway.

If I could have afforded the time and the energy, none of my children would have been anything but home schooled. I felt guilty about consigning them to the vagaries of the public school system, but I did. And from what I have seen, their experence in the K-12 education camps echoed mine.

wow. You obviously haven't actually looked at unschooling or how it works and it's REALLY showing. I'm sure there are a few dozen unschooling parents who actually just wait for their kids to trip over information, but for the other 99.9% of unschoolers, it is a labor intensive process which infuses their entire lives. About a year before my son started reading he would come and ask me what letters made the different sounds he was hearing in words (this is called phonics - no workbook needed). I worked with him a bit once he showed an interest in actually figuring out what words on a page said, but he quickly got sick of it. I let him be with his Calvin and Hobbes books and he taught himself to read over the next 2 months. Today he's in 2nd grade reading at about a 6th grade level. He spends much of his day asking me questions which can lead to conversations about everything from physiology to economics. Today he told me that he's sick of having to figure out math problems everytime (usually allowance, time or recipes) and wanted to just memorize the answers to math problems. So we pulled out an addition chart and he worked on filling it in. He's never been in school and I can probably count on my fingers the number of times I've forced him to do "school work", yet I'm pretty darn sure the local public school isn't getting the results with their 2nd graders I'm getting here at home. My 6th grader is doing algebra (it'll probably take a couple of years since he only pulls it out about once a week), is truly an expert on animals, particularly reptiles, human evolution and prehistoric life forms. He's also quite interested in politics, biology, mythology and is on the third chapter of a novel he's writing. Not to mention how he's learning child development and care by helping out with his toddler and infant sisters. Of course there are plenty of days where they just goof of, build legos and bicker. The bottom line is that unschooling isn't unlearning. It can even mean doing multiplication tables, phonics and reading the constitution. You've been in the education establishment too long if the idea that children are naturally wired to want to learn seems ridiculous to you. However, one thing you need to remember about people who unschool: this isn't something they do blindly. Unschoolers are usually intelligent people who fully understand what they are doing and what it requires of them. People who do this are likely to have a better home environment and understanding of children and learning than most people. Most research into things like early education, extended school days and school years and intensive drilling of students has found that these things are very helpful for at risk or low income children, but have marginal or no effect on outcomes for middle class children. Unschoolers are generally starting from a better place to begin with than families whose children most benefit from early ed and such. I've known poor unschoolers, but they were poor by choice (sacrificing income in order to focus on lifestyle or kids) rather than through lack of opportunity. Generally these are people with a solid foundation who are well equipped to pass their knowlege on to their kids. You may want to do some more research before commenting on this issue again. There's a proverb I have been known to remind my kids of: "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."